Prust gets 2 games for breaking Stepan’s jaw as Vigneault vents

Two suspensions, another injury, a war of words and … suddenly, this has become a series.

Friday was a day off the ice for both the Rangers and Canadiens in the midst of the Eastern Conference finals, following the Habs’ rousing 3-2 overtime win on Thursday night at the Garden that cut the Blueshirts’ lead in the best-of-seven contest to 2-1. And yet as Game 4 approaches on Sunday night back on Broadway, the plot only thickens.

First came Alain Vigneault, the Rangers coach who was rather heated about the fact one of his top centers, Derek Stepan, had to undergo surgery to repair a broken jaw suffered on a late hit from the Canadiens’ Brandon Prust early in Game 3.

“That incident, the four referees missed the call and Stepan is injured,” Vigneault said, with no timetable known for Stepan’s availability going forward. “Late hit, everything that you want to get out of the game — that was [Prust’s] hit on Stepan.”

Though Prust was not penalized on the play, the NHL came down with a two-game suspension for the former Ranger, calling it interference and adding the supplemental discipline for “extreme lateness” and “significant head contact from the way it was delivered,” according to the video released by the league’s Department of Player Safety.

Daniel Carcillo argues with the ref before making contact with him.Anthony Causi

Prust already had been a lightning rod in this series, after saying Chris Kreider’s collision with Montreal starting goaltender Carey Price in Game 1 was “accidentally on purpose.” The right-knee injury to Price has sidelined the Habs’ top player indefinitely, and Prust’s instigating comments began to light fire underneath this series.

That flame was stoked on Friday afternoon, as Canadiens coach Michel Therrien was asked about his thoughts concerning the legality of Prust’s hit — before the suspension came down in a 4 p.m. phone hearing. Curiously, Therrien quickly turned to Price’s injury as a reference.

“You know what? If there is a team that can understand the loss of a player, it’s us,” Therrien said. “We lost Carey Price in the first game of the series with the hit [by] Kreider, when he hit Carey Price, and we felt frustrated at the time. We’re still frustrated not having our goalie, our number one most important player, because of those type of plays.”

After taking Prust’s shoulder directly to the side of his face just 2:45 into the first period Thursday, Stepan stayed down on the ice and then went to the locker room. The X-rays taken came back negative, and Stepan missed just two shifts before returning to the ice. It wasn’t until Friday morning when he woke up in pain that he was sent to a specialist, where further tests revealed the fracture, along with the necessity for surgery.

The Rangers decided to take things into their own hands on the ice shortly after the hit. Dan Carcillo charged at Prust and plowed him into the backboards, and Derek Dorsett engaged Prust in a fight. As Carcillo was being ushered to the penalty box, he made some antagonistic contact with linesman Scott Driscoll, and was therefore given a game misconduct.

Because Carcillo violated Category II of rule 40.3, Physical Abuse of Officials, league VP Colin Campbell automatically suspended him for the requisite 10 games Friday.

“What saddens me about [the Stepan] hit, if the call is made on the ice, we’re on a five-minute power play,” Vigneault said. “And what happened to Dan Carcillo — and what Dan did is inexcusable and he is going to pay a big price for it — but if the call is made on the ice, he’s not put in that position.”

The Canadiens had their own view of Prust’s hit, as well, with Therrien calling it “a good hit, a hockey hit,” while forward David Desharnais went one step further.

“With that hit, Prusty set the tone,” he said. “They’re not happy about it, but you set the tone for the game and it creates a rivalry right there.”

Therrien, Desharnais and the rest of the Montreal contingent were all saying the right things that neither Prust nor Kreider intended to injure. It likely is too big a leap to place Therrien as the mastermind behind a retaliation plot for the injury on Price, but rest assured come Sunday night, there will be no love lost between these two teams.

“Obviously every game has their moments,” Vigneault said, “every game has their incidences where sometimes blood can boil on one side or the other.”